Cytokines and Graves' disease

Cytokines are an extraordinarily diverse group of molecules, with pleiotropic and often overlapping effects. They are crucial to the autoimmune response, and, in particular, regulation of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cell function depends on the balance of cytokines produced during an immune response. It is also now clear that cytokines are produced by a wide array of cells, including the thyroid follicular cells (TFCs).

Intrathyroidal lymphocytes produce a heterogeneous pattern of cytokines and we have summarized the likely effects of these. In Graves' disease, TFCs can themselves express immunologically important molecules as the result of cytokine stimulation and these could contribute to the perpetuation of the autoimmune process. In addition, cytokines have a number of generally inhibitory effects on thyroid hormone production which would tend to counter the stimulatory effects of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibodies in Graves' disease.